Campton Hills drops zoning citation against Trustee Burson

Village officials promptly dropped an alleged zoning violation against Campton Hills Trustee Janet Burson Tuesday in an adjudication hearing that lasted barely two minutes.

The village cited Burson Jan. 24, alleging she was running a massage therapy service as a home-based business, in violation of the zoning ordinance, because she included her home address on her website.

She had faced fines of up to $750 per day.

Burson presented hearing officer Tom Elsner with a 12-page motion to dismiss from her attorney.

“Village, I’ll give you time to respond,” Elsner said to Building and Zoning Officer James Brown and Village Administrator Mark Rooney. “Do you want 30 days to respond? Or do you just want to do something today? It’s completely up to you.”

Brown responded that Burson was in compliance and agreed to dismiss the complaint.

“Village, this is your decision. Is it that the code was not violated or the violation was remedied prior to hearing?” Elsner asked.

“The latter,” Brown said.

“No cost, no fines,” Elsner said, giving Burson a copy of the final order. “Ma’am, you are free to go.”

Burson said it was unfortunate that a person cited under the village’s code needs to hire an attorney.

“The question is, what happens next? What happens tomorrow? Next week? Next month?” Burson said. “It’s a broader issue of what the village can and can’t do with regulating home-based businesses. I think the motion (to dismiss) makes a good argument that this was not a violation.”

Burson said in an administrative adjudication hearing, the presence of a citation is all the proof needed.

“Then you need to come and prove – by the preponderance of the evidence – that they’re wrong,” Burson said. “This is a high bar for the average citizen showing up at administrative adjudication.”

Rooney said the village got what it wanted – Burson’s compliance in taking down her address from her website and removing the calendar where a client can make appointments.

“The village is happy to be at the point of dismissal because her attorney gave us in writing that she is now in compliance and not advertising her home-based business,” Rooney said.

Rooney said her attorney sent an email to the village that in conversation with the village attorney Carmen Forte, that she will be in compliance going forward.

“I don’t have the staff go to after a sitting trustee, but I take no pleasure in it. There’s a reason there is such a low trust in government and disdain for it, if the person making the rules or the laws isn’t following them. old adage rules for thee but not for me.”

Rooney was referring to meetings last year when trustees were writing a new zoning code, and Burson asked if massage therapy could be added as legal home business. But at the time, she did not disclose that she had a home business for massage.

Attorney Mark W. Daniel’s motion to dismiss the citation against Burson cited other deficiencies in the village’s code.

Instead, Daniel asserted that the village’s own code did not give the village’s building and zoning officer the power to cite her for a home-based business because, “This ordinance does not attempt to define or list all permitted home businesses.”

“The Code Hearing Division cannot ignore the first sentence’s recognition that there are innumerable home-based businesses that could arise,” according to the filing.

The village’s citation to Burson, was to “cease advertising of the business.”

“‘Advertising of the business’ is not a zoning violation,” according to the filing. “The only locations in the Zoning Ordinance where the term ‘advertise’ or ‘advertising’ appears are in the sign regulations and the definition of terms used in the sign regulations. There is no allegation that Defendant has a sign and sign regulations appear nowhere in the citation.”

The village also relied on a section of its code that acknowledged the difference between principal uses and accessory uses for a home, “since all home-based businesses must be accessory to the principal use of a home as a residence,” according to the filing.

That section requires that the person operating the home-based business reside inside the house, which Burson does, according to the filing.

“The provision of massage therapy services in a home-based occupation is a lawful accessory use to the principal residential use of a home in the (residential) districts,” according to the filing.

“No more time should be wasted in defense of a flawed endeavor,” according to the filing.

Burson maintained that she did not operate a massage therapy business, West Suburban Pain Relief, out of her home and travels to see clients she used to have in Oak Park. Burson also said the calendar function to make appointments had been disabled.

The citation against Burson arose from a former village trustee, Darlene Bakk, who provided officials with print-outs of Burson’s website which included her home address in Campton Hills.